Laurie Canter was feeling very much at home as he carded a 67 to put himself on top of the leaderboard heading into the weekend at the 2022 Catalunya Championship.
The Englishman was a frequent visitor the the Qualifying School earlier in his career, graduating at PGA Catalunya Golf and Wellness in 2015 and 2016 and last week's venue Infinitum in 2017 and 2019.
The two courses are approximately 120 miles apart and between them have hosted every Final Stage of Q School since 2008, making Canter familiar with north-east Spain.
And after moving to seven under on day two, the 32-year-old revealed he was feeling very comfortable in a familiar setting.
"I feel like I’ve spent half my life in this part of Spain, between here and Lumine (Infinitum)," he said. "I think I’ve been to Q School six or seven times.
"I know it well, know a few of the local restaurants, I guess that counts - you feel comfortable.
"I love this golf course, I love the facilities and everything about it. It’s genuinely a bit of a privilege to play it. I think it’s a really special place."
The highlight of Canter's round was a spectacular hole-out from the rough for eagle on the par-four sixth to go with four birdies and a single dropped shot.
"I was in between clubs," he said. "Ended up going with a slightly shorter one, just hoped it jumped out of the rough.
"It came out well and, to be honest, it looked like it might be a bit long but one bounce, two bounce and it disappeared. Obviously delighted for that to go in for eagle, pretty unexpected.
"It's such a long week but to play well and compete you need things to go your way and that was definitely a great break. Hopefully I will have good memories of playing that hole over the weekend."
Fellow Englishman James Morrison was also full of praise for the Stadium Course after carding a battling 71 that left him a single shot behind Canter.
"Found it very hard, need a beer now to calm myself down, but it’s an absolute pleasure to play a golf course like that," he said.
"You get it out of line, you’ve got to rely on your short game and today I did that, I didn’t play well at all. One bad club from my caddie cost me a bogey but dug in there, chipped and putted well so I’m happy.
"Wade (Ormsby) tells me if I couldn’t chip and putt I would be selling Mars Bars, so I relied on that pretty nicely today. It is what it is and you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.
"If it rains heavily tomorrow the course will change completely and level par is a good score. We’ll see what happens, get on with it and do what I can do."
